WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM / BBC SESSION 12 inch

Here, on this two track BBC Sessions album (both of which are originally drawn from the band’s 2011 record Celestial Lineage) it’s not hard to see why they are capable of wider appeal than one could expect from an average underground metal group . On “Prayer of Transformation” fingers creep ever higher up the neck of the guitar, the double-kick puckers and throbs, a desperate growl tearing it’s heavily, lavishly painted landscape asunder. It’s a manipulative, truly effective formula as perfected by the likes of Mogwai and, more relevantly, Neurosis – slow but never leaden, distorted, almost flailing at times but never lacking discipline, lengthy but not indulgent, triumphal – almost transcendent. While it might be next to impossible to interpret Nathan’s exact words, what it ‘feels’ like is something grounded in the earth, pushing out towards something else, other realms imagined or otherwise. The Weaver brothers backing of something-a-little-more-than session players daub the scene expertly with flashes of synth and metronomic rhythm.